Roland Jupiter 6

I've dreamed of owning this awesome keyboard ever since they were first
made in 1983 when I was twelve years old and
MIDI was
still in its infancy. So when one came up at a good price I finally persuaded
myself that the current economic climate does not favour keeping money saved
up in the bank; an alternative investment would be wise. Or something.

This truly great synth surpasses all my expectations. It is a fabulous way
to learn analogue synthesis, as everything is laid out clearly and simply on
the front panel; just press the 'Manual' button and move the knobs and sliders
at will. This machine is so tactile, and really invites tweaking and
expressiveness in performance as well as while programming. After this, synth
design largely went downhill;
maybe this will change when manufacturers realise that people are perfectly
willing to spend lots on old second-hand gear instead of the latest new toy,
simply because of the superior design and user interface. I'm glad to be
spending less time chained to computer and more time actually playing,
which is how it should be.

A major factor in my acquiring this synth, which is amazing in its own
right, is the
Europa
upgrade. This is a completely new operating system for the Jupiter 6 which
adds an immensely powerful arpeggiator/sequencer as well as comprehensive
MIDI spec,
allowing import/export of continuous controllers and System Exclusive
messages. Yes, this means real-time control of sound parameters via
MIDI, as well
as loading and saving sound data to a sequencer, not to mention using the
Jupiter's many faders and knobs to remotely control other
MIDI devices.
This makes the Jupiter 6 as powerful as any modern synth, yet with classic
analogue sounds and spaceship-like front panel. For those who care about
these things, there are
14 knobs,
27 sliders,
24 illuminated switches and
38 buttons with LEDs,
plus a pitch bender and modulation trigger button, not to mention
LEDs which pulse in time with
LFO1,
LFO2 and Arpeggio
rates.

This
particular Jupiter also has a modification made by a previous owner,
visible to the right
of the keyboard: a knob which switches between two groups of patch memories,
thus doubling the user memory from 48 sounds to 96. There are two
LEDs which light up to
signify whether you're using group 1 or 2. I'm not sure quite how this was
done; I've yet to open it up and look under the hood. I'm going to get the
Europa upgrade
soon which obviously won't use this extra hack, and will revolutionise my use
of this already awesome machine.

When Roland Met Eve

At present I'm revelling in the sublime sound of this beast, hooked up to an
Eventide H949 Harmonizer for chorus and
delay, the XLR outputs of which are fed directly into my
Tascam DA-P1
portable
DAT recorder, until I get a mixer and
computer. I'm obsessed with a stunning lead sound I've come up with which is a
joy to play in Polyphonic mode, but sheer heaven with six voices stacked in
Unison, with subtle LFO and filter mods oozing through the delays. It's hard
to want more, although a compressor would be
handy to avoid
clipping the Eventide's inputs
when the filter resonance soars into the stratosphere. And yes,
those filters are
wild: not just low-pass, but band-pass and high-pass too, greatly extending
the sonic palette. [UPDATE: I later bought a
Roland JX-3P too. I'll
eventually post more pictures of them...]